1University of British
Columbia, Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada; 2International
Collaboration On Repair Discoveries

Diffusion
tensor imaging, quantitative T2, and T1 mapping were used to characterize
excised rat spinal cord samples at 3 weeks post injury. Comparisons were made
between injured and controlled white matter for several MR parameters, as
well as for optical and electron microscopy cross-sections. Axonal damage is
demonstrated by decrease in longitudinal diffusivity and fraction anisotropy,
while myelin damage is more difficult to assess due to the presence of myelin
debris. However the result did show increased myelin water content which is
consistent with the histology result which showed increased spacing between
myelin bi-layers in myelin debris.